20% Lost Voting Rights: Study

One of every five registered voters removed from the voter rolls before the 1984 election was wrongfully denied the right to cast a ballot, according to an independent study released Tuesday.

The study, conducted by a University of Chicago professor, was commissioned by the Midwest Voter Registration Education Project, which monitors Hispanic voting trends, and was supported by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

``We`ve concluded that the process as currently conducted may wrongfully deprive thousands of white, black and Hispanic registered voters of the opportunity to vote in the March primary,`` said Juan Andrade, executive director of the Midwest voter group. The study ``revealed that 19 percent of Hispanic voters and 20 percent of black and low-income white voters were wrongfully purged,`` he said.

According to the election board, the last purge of the voter rolls was done in October, 1984, before the presidential election. The board removed about 139,000 names. An estimated 40,000 of those were later reinstated, but the study estimated that an additional 27,800 voters were wrongfully removed from the rolls.

Thomas Leach, a spokesman for the election board, and Andrade held a joint news conference to announce the results of the study as well as several modifications in how registered voters are verified.

Wednesday and Thursday, cavassers will visit the residences of all 1.5 million registered voters in Chicago. The nearly 6,000 canvassers are assigned in pairs, one Democratic and one Republican, to the city`s 2,912 precincts.

In the past, cavassers have removed voters who have moved, died or changed their names. But there have been charges that they did not personally visit every home. Critics have said that names were purged if they were not on a mailbox, or it looked as though no one lived in an apartment.

``We`ve always said there have been problems,`` with the canvassers, Leach said. ``We`re concerned.``

Canvassers will now be required to list their sources for removing names from the rolls. Legitimate sources will include landords and U.S. mail carriers. Canvassers will also be required to list the exact time a registered voter was purged from the rolls so board officials can keep better track.

To be reinstated in the past, voters were required to go to one of the election board`s offices with two pieces of identification.

The new rules simplify the procedures by also allowing the voters to call a special phone number or mail a receipt to the board to begin their reinstatement process.

``This is a stopgap measure,`` Leach said. ``This is not the final solution. We want permanent judges on a year-round basis.`` That measure is expected to be introduced in the General Assembly this session.